raabjerg

Random encounters

It’s funny how you just happen to run into people at certain times. Today, I had the pleasure of meeting Hugh and his family from Ireland on the busride from Stansted to London. Very nice people. I was even invited to stay at their place for a night if I was ever in the area, and have an authentic Irish experience. I might just take them up on that offer

Add comment april 7th, 2010

The amazing Dyson Airblade

Returning from Denmark last Monday, I had a short stop at London Waterloo, where I had the pleasure of paying 30p to use the bathroom, and there have an encounter with the so-called Dyson Airblade.

As I was drying my hands in it, I read something like ‘The Dyson Airblade uses up to 83% less energy than conventional warm air hand dryers…’ Smart. Apparently, it also burns your hands; or at least, that’s how it felt. Ok, I’m exaggerating a bit, but I could feel the evening and the next day that part of my hand had been exposed to a too high temperature.

This is how it works: Air flows horizontally like a ‘blade’ (hence the name), and beneath is a hollow space, so effectively, you dry your hands by moving them up and down, allowing the ‘air-blade’ to dry them. This worked fine. Until I thought ‘let’s try this again’, and suddenly my hand got pulled to the side of the ‘blade’ (where the air is coming out). A piece of advice when using the air-blade: Keep your hands firmly in the middle

4 comments oktober 25th, 2008

The Café Est at Gatwick airport

Before the weekend, I had the pleasure of travelling out from Gatwick airport. This is rapidly becoming my favourite airport in the London area. Not only is it easy to get to from Bracknell, but it has one truly amazing feature: The Café Est.

Here you get excellent Italian food with a great view over the runway. When you step into the café – which is really a restaurant – you suddenly loose the cheap feeling you usually get from airport places, but still retain the air travel goodness feeling.

My two favourites are the pizza with Goat’s cheese and various vegetables (for an amazing £8 at an airport), and the penne funghi. The last-mentioned is served in two sizes: Main course and starter. As it turns out, both times I’ve tried the starter size, I’ve had more than enough to eat. Have a look at my half-eaten plate:

Yes, this is the starter-size. Not only does it feature an amazing white wine cream sauce with aspargus and wild mushrooms (not only ‘champignon’, but real exciting mushroom-sorts), but it is served with (if you wish) gracious amounts of parmigiano on top, as well as freshly ground pepper. All for the price of a little over £5. This place is truly a find, and remain one of the reasons for which I treasure Gatwick airport so much.

4 comments oktober 22nd, 2008

Health and Safety III

It never fails to amaze me what warning labels they put on things in the UK. Case in point:

(The yellow sign [on the razor!] reads: ‘Security protected. Please remove prior to putting in microwave.’)

3 comments oktober 22nd, 2008

Health and Safety II

Apparently, then, in Heathrow, they do have taps with quite hot water in it. Only, they are not labeled. Ouch! (okay, this was a bit overstated, but the water was definitely borderline hot)

(relating to the former post ‘Health and Safety‘)

9 comments august 26th, 2008

Health and Safety

So, this week, I went to England for a wedding. It was really nice

In the UK, however, they have a term called Health and Safety. I wonder if that’s what made them put up the following sign at the Gatwick airport restrooms (which are not called restrooms at all in the UK, but, hmm, bathrooms, I think):

If it doesn’t show clearly, it’s a sink with a sign over it saying “warning: very hot water”. This made me pause a few seconds. Very hot water. Doesn’t sound nice. I was halfways expecting to be injured, but instead, it turned out to be a very pleasant maybe around 40 C water temperature.

Thank you, Health and Safety

1 comment juli 6th, 2008